Changing of the guard at Microsoft

Gates officially steps down from day-to-day responsibilities at Microsoft today.

For those of us who spent any significant amount of time at MSFT, this is a watershed event. Even after Steve Ballmer became the chief executive officer, Gates had remained actively involved in technology decisions and product reviews. More than anyone else, he was the heart and soul of the company. After his ambitious vision– a personal computer on every desk running MSFT software– was accomplished for all purposes, the company had difficulty articulating a new direction or rallying around an equally compelling objective.

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Update: Comcast changes traffic management policy

(Follow-up to earlier posts on interference with Slingbox traffic)

Comcast had announced that it was making changes to the way network traffic was managed. Perhaps as a result of this change, this blogger has observed that a Slingbox located in a Philadelphia residence with Comcast broadband access no longer shows the strict cap at 350kbps for upstream bandwidth. During sustained streaming, bandwidth reported by Sling Player application regularly hovered around 800kbps. On the downside, the change in video quality between this new unrestricted stream and the artificially capped one was barely perceptible.

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